In the Rockaways, Preparing for a Long, Cold Night

Ernest Smith has no power in his Rockaways home but decided to stay in order to protect his home from looters.

Challenged by bone-chilling temperatures, people in the Rockaways worried Sunday about surviving the coldest night since the storm left the peninsula without electricity, heat and potable water.

Those who stayed spent Sunday in search of blankets and warmer clothes, planning to layer and huddle together in hopes of riding out the storm until the power and heat was restored.

Relief crews including the state National Guard had set up at least five distribution centers in the area, handing out food, water, blankets and flashlights to those in need.

Less official organizations such as the Far Rockaway Surfing Club on Beach 87th Street turned themselves into relief spots, collecting supplies for stranded neighbors, from water and blankets to large bottles of bleach to clean homes that were starting smell of mildew and rotting food.

Rolling suitcases to a MTA bus stop, Wakisha Shields, 42 years old, and her daughter decided to return to a family member’s house in Brooklyn after spending one night in their Beach 59th Street apartment.

As the cold set in Saturday night, they began packing, but by the time they were ready to go, they could not find any transportation. The buses and dollar vans that have been the servicing the Rockaways were done operating for the night, Ms. Shields said.

The two cradled together in one bed for the night.

“We had fleece pajamas on. We had fleece robes and three fleece blankets. Thank God the warm pets cuddled up with us,” said Shield, a clerk with the city Human Resources Administration. “I got liquor so that helped.”

Pavell Williams, 50, who lives in a two-story house on Beach 60th Street, said she and her 22-year-old daughter could weather the cold for the time being, but worried about her 92-year-old mother, whom they nursed with blankets and hot tea to keep warm.

“I could probably handle it, but my mother, she’s got to come out of here,” she said. “I am so frustrated right now, you don’t understand.”

Nearby, Rhonda Trapp, 32, had evacuated her flooded house and was staying with a family member, where she said 10 people from four families had been taking shelter, including three babies.

“It was freezing,” she said. “The kids was like ice. They each had on three pairs of clothes – pants, sweaters and socks.”

Trapp said she was trying to keep her family together, but if the weather got worse, she would have to separate herself from her children by sending them to relatives’ homes.

“If the weather continues, I am going to have to start splitting them up,” she said. “We have family, but there is not enough space for all of us.”

At a distribution center in the parking lot of a Waldbaums shopping center, hundreds of people stocked up on food and water being distributed by the National Guard, warmed up with coffee and hot chocolate from a mobile Dunkin’ Donuts truck and rummaged through second hand clothes and blankets for warm pieces.

Betty Hagan, 47, of Far Rockaway, was able to secure extra sweatpants for herself, her husband, three children and two grandchildren. The seven returned from family in Brooklyn worried that someone would loot their house and planned to stay as long as possible.

“It’s been rough,” she said. “The day time is ok, but at about 7 o’clock at night, we are like ‘oh, boy, here we go.’ It’s time to go to bed. The babies have been sleeping in sweatpants and hoodies and two pairs of socks each. Every day it’s getting colder.”

By Sunday afternoon, she was looking for a way to send the young ones back to her sister’s house in Flatbush.

“We need to figure out how to get them over before it gets dark,” she said. “All of us wanted to stay together but we didn’t know it was going to be this bad. It’s not fair to the children. They don’t have a clue what’s going on.”